Troubled by our lack of coverage of this important innovating country we recently decided to try a “thought experiment” in the form of a new Facebook page entitled New Mobility Korea which you can now find at http://www.facebook.com/NewMobilityKorea. Why are we doing this and to what end? Answer in two steps:

First because, despite our very wide international coverage of transportation innovations in World Streets — with some 4191 registered readers signing in from an incredible 149 different countries — we have had relatively little contact with or structured coverage of what is going on at the leading edge of urban transport and technology in the Republic of Korea. (Given that, it is not surprising that Korea is thus far only number 27 on the list of our most frequent visitors, averaging barely one hit a day over the last year. something must be wrong or missing there, given the importance of the push in transport-related innovation in cities.)

Our failure to give sufficient attention to new mobility developments in Korea was of course a major oversight, and one that we are now trying to figure out how to remedy. Korea is fast emerging among the leading practitioners in the New Mobility Agenda, and it is important that our readers and colleagues around the world be able to follow developments at the leading edge.

What can be noted of interest about Korea when it comes to our particular sector at this particular time, is that with the continuing fast growth and escalating automobilization they have for the last decade or so started to suffer from hyper-mobilization. But also, since they recognize the problem, they are doing something about it. And that’s where things start to get interesting. Perhaps not enough, not fast enough, perhaps the overall strategy is not yet fully in place, but the will and the means and the capabilities are there. So Korea is going to be an example in many ways. Very exciting and well worth following closely.

And in this I think we just might be able make a modest contribution. With the new Facebook page just opened up at http://www.facebook.com/NewMobilityKorea and this push for coverage in World Streets announcing and opening up the thought experiment, let’s keep our eyes open to see what happens next. Our next immediate step will be to start to reach out to bring more people into this informal group, and with it more information on what is going on and future projects and events. So if you have ideas or candidates for us, you have come to the right place. Thank you.

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Other working social media sites which are being started and tested to see if they may be useful.: